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The 13th Loop [A Progression, GameLit, Sci-Fi Adventure]

Lykanthropy

Chapter 92 Just Add A Wand To Complete

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Chapter 92

Just Add A Wand To Complete

So much had happened, recently. I survived jumping into space without a suit. I kissed an ideal form of Jess, which unlocked my Ultimate Fighting Form. I fought against an end game monster, from a universe of nightmares and managed to survive. Yet, despite all of that, I was still somehow dreading my impending talk with my Jess, more than anything else. Especially as I assume this talk has to deal with my Ultimate kiss, with the very sexy Alien Jess.

As we go over to a side room, I wonder why this time seems so tough to keep hold of Jess. Well, in all honesty, every time seems like it is nearly impossible to keep a hold of her. I might as well call her Shelby, the great white buffalo for how hard she is to keep a hold of.

Honestly, I think that is why I have tried so hard to keep her at bay, even now. The fact that I could have her, and still somehow manage to lose her is almost too much.

What is worse, I still don't know how to keep her out of the cycle of time restarts and memory erases, that I seem to be plagued with recently. I have done some things, but are they enough?

Somehow, we manage to get to an empty room both quickly and after seeming to somehow walk forever. The room is both somehow well out of the way, and seemingly well maintained, as if someone has worked here a lot recently, though there should be no logical reason why someone should be in this room at all. Still, I let that minor concern give way to the meeting at hand. All the room being used regularly means, is that the room is clean and ready to be used when we enter.

Each step makes me feel like something fundamental is about to change. Once the automatic door closes behind me, Jess takes me to a dark corner of the room, then locks gazes with me. She shivers for a second, as our eyes lock, but then she quickly regains her composure as she all but tries to sprint through her next statement.

"I don't know how else to say this, so I will try to be as direct as possible." Jess begins, but then pauses as she tries to explain the seriousness of this conversation with her eyes alone. Seeing that she has my full attention, she continues. "I think we should be separated."

And just like that, I feel a solid sucker punch to the groin. I stare at her; my lips are moving to protest. I want to stop this, but I can't move as suddenly everything hurts.

"You? You are serious?" That is all I can manage. My mind is reeling. Just what had the General and Alien Jess been saying while they were gone? Did they lie? Or was my kiss that big of an offense? I mean it was to save my life. I also only kissed an alternate Universe's Jess, that can't be considered cheating too much, can it? Before I can go too far down this path of thought, Jess continues.

"Yes. I saw the videos, and I am only getting in your way." Jess added.

At that statement, my mind begins to reel.

"Wait, there was nothing I could do to survive in space. Had it not been for the spell Alien Jess applied to me, I would have died. As it was, I barely survived the second or so I was left exposed to space. I mean I could literally feel my blood boiling. Boiling because it was freezing too quickly." I say, pointing to my arm that still had phantom trembles of pain coursing through it, even now.

At this Jess pauses, then cocks her head to the side as if to look at me for the first time.

"Wait, you are on your little tryst with Sexy Guardian Me?" Jess asks.

"I wouldn't exactly call her that…" I try to say, but I am stopped.

"No, your little tree told me all about her."

At that, I let out a sigh yet again, more of my life is being ruined by this crazy rebel tree. "Why? Why Prime? Just why?" I wonder to myself.

"Father, I was trying to help. Just listen to her, this will get better. Well, it might, so long as you let it all get over with." Prime states. The way Jess' eyes bulge, I can tell she is hearing the voice of the tree as well. Yep, I'm in a private conversation with my girlfriend, a woman I am fully aware of how badly I can mess things up with. Only now I must also worry about Prime coming in and potentially ruining everything, by reading out my thoughts for everyone to hear.

How ca he even read my thoughts? I do have a good Mind Shield? At least, I thought I had a good Mind Shield.

"Father we are bound by a spiritual contract. This naturally bypasses defenses that might otherwise impede our vast spiritual connection."

Then just like that, I realize I only have myself to blame for everything. This day just gets better and better.

Before Prime and I could go too far down our rabbit hole of bickering, Jess once again cuts in and takes over the conversation.

"Wait? Do you think I want to stop us?" Jess asks, a note of something in her voice. At this moment, she has too many emotions going on, to pick just one set out.

Taking a resigned breath, I let out my fears and speak the truth.

"Yeah. Of course, I'm afraid of losing you. We had probably the best week at Wango Tango, but since then… I just seem to mess everything up. Honestly, I don't even know how I was lucky enough to get you once. Nor do I really know why you are so angry with me now."

"Wow, you are really terrible at this." Jess says, a faint smile cresting her lips to take out part of her sting.

"Yeah, probably." I begin, but then I pause. "Wait, if you aren't here to break off our relationship. Then why are we here?"

With that Jess, takes in a deep breath, then lets out a long sigh. "I already said that. I don't think we make a good team. I am terribly untrained. I can't use my full powers upon command, and I clearly got in your way."

I pause, trying to figure out what she is talking about. Then it clicks.

"Wait, you are talking about as a combat team, not a us team?" I ask, trying to clarify.

"Wow, you are dense. But yes, I am nowhere near trained enough to be on a combat team with you. That is what the General showed me. She showed how you had to work twice as hard to cover me, and make sure I never got injured." Jess said, then her eyes trailed down and looked at the ground as if she wanted to say more.

"Oh, is that what this is?" I ask, feeling a weight lift off my chest.

"Yes." She then pauses, as she looks at me. "You aren't even going to argue the point a little?"

"What? No. You made a great personal insight into yourself. This type of personal understanding is how you grow. Why would I try to shortchange your personal growth and understanding, by lying or trying to fill you with false confidence? These are important lessons to learn." I say.

Jess just stares at me, as her face looks to have taken on an annoyed tone.

Silence.

She just stares at me, like I told her favorite pet had mange and needed a bath.

"So, what would you like to do?" I ask, finally filling in the silence with an awkward question.

"I have been offered the role as your handler." Jess says excitedly.

"Oh, that is nice." I begin, as I suddenly have a memory of a fading dream, one where I hear Jess giving me commands through an earpiece, but then that vision is quickly dropped.

"Father. Why don't you tell your handler about your two new spells?" Prime asks.

"New spells?" Jess and I ask in unison.

"Yes, when Father kissed Guardian Jess, he unlocked his Ultimate Fighting Form, which unlocked his final two magic spells. Aren't you curious as to what your new spells are?" Prime asks.

At that, I must admit that I am somewhat curious. I do remember the message about the spells, but at the time there was so much going on. Everything from trying to not die from being at the mercy of the vacuum of space, to trying to save Alien Jess from being impaled by a Prime Behemoth, to fighting off a Prime Behemoth and running away to live another day.

So much went on in such a short period of time, that I had almost forgotten about the two new spells. One should be active, while the other should be passive.

"You have new spells from kissing an alien?" Jess asks, a sense of annoyance filling her voice.

We had already unlocked most of her spells and would likely use a lot of our team's earnings from this training round to unlock still more of her spells from her two different classes.

"Yeah. I almost forgot." I say, trying to distract away from the awkward kiss part that Prime seems to be adamant about bringing up.

"Well? What are they?" Jess asks, finally giving me an out and a way to change the conversation.

Shrugging, I open my status window, then grimace as I see the answers. I knew my mage class sucked, but this took everything to a whole new level.

Magic Spell NameProficiency RatingMaster Tier Artifact Enchantment99+%Master Tier Shapeshifting99+%

After I see my new spell and passive ability, I freeze up. Then I realize, another one of my worst nightmares has come to life. I am now officially a master tier level stripper in a steel mill, perhaps I should back track a bit. This involves my first-time meeting Astra, an Endarian sage. She was also the first person to take me out hunting Prolaxians in this lifetime.

She showed me so much, but I still remember her pep talk the most. The talk consisted of how a mage support class having was not too terrible. Why? Because there were always worse classes, like the Enchanters.

Why were enchanters so bad?

Honestly, Enchanters and enchanting was great, if the person knew what they were doing. See an enchanter's mana must condense into glue like particles that can be adhered to a particular item that is being enchanted. The greater the enchanter's skill, the less glitter mana would be splashed everywhere. This glitter mana also had a cascading effect of adding glitter like resonance to almost all other spells cast by the Enchanter. Given that most enchanters could only enchant items, this is often not that big of a deal.

However, this enchanting with glittery mana does become a problem when someone is a healer. A person who now radiates waves of healing sparkles. Added to that is the fact that I have large multi-colored butterfly wings and I am effectively every little girl's dream fairy godmother come to life.

All I need is to enchant myself a magic wand, to complete the fairy godmother appearance.

So now, if I am the fairy godmother, does that make Jess the princess of this story?

Well that was a stupid question, she is always a princess. At least she is my princess.

"What, is it?" Jess asks, looking at me with confusion.

"Father is just comparing you to a princess. One he will now be able to make a true crown for, with his Master Tier Artifact Enchantment spells." Prime adds, oh so not helpfully.

"Wait? You are an Enchanter now?" Jess asks.

I just shake my head. "No, I am probably terrible at it. I will likely get mana glitter everywhere. Nope, not even going to try." I admit.

"Father, you are the best Rune reader and writer in the universe. Also, the fact that your final spell is for making Artifacts, not just adding enchantments. This means you are adding permanence to the universe." Prime begins.

Swoosh.

I am about to argue, but then we are all distracted by the fact that the door opens to reveal a Prolaxian.

"Oh, excuse me." The monster begins to say in its gravelly voice. Before locking glowing green sacs filled eyes with me. Then leaving quickly.

"Oh, that is no problem at all." Jess says.

As for me, I am momentarily stunned, but then I mentally reach out and Telekinetically grab the monster then throw it hard at the wall.

Physical Attribute Boost.

I cast the Physical Attribute Boost and begin charging for the still stunned monster.

"Kyle! Stop that!" Jess shouts at me, as if I am somehow in the wrong.

Unfortunately, I only have a short second for this. After pinning the creature to the wall for a second, I begin slamming it about the hallway wildly.

Wham! Blam! Thud!

Jess is behind me, trying to stop me. "That is Glandice." She shouts angrily.

The passageway is short, so I can't get much momentum between each throw, but that is okay. I am only buying time until I get close enough to focus and change my Revelation Sight from passive to active.

Whoosh.

Then with that, we found the mole in the middle of the Endarian stronghold. The one who had changed the incident response forms to no longer be a warding circle but changed it into a summoning circle instead. If I had to guess, this one could have also warned the others of my still being alive. Though I gave up all chances at a quiet second life, when I put on my Heal Boy costume with my butterfly wings on full display for all to see.

The monster fell to the ground, its thin outer shell clearly burnt away, as I could see Jess shrink and cower from behind me.

Yes, see I don't randomly start attacking Glandices for no reason. I think to myself, as I stop paying attention to Jess, and turn my attention forward to the Prolaxian Herald before me.

Badump. Badump.

My heart beats faster as I let a slight smile crest my lips. After facing down the Prime Behemoth in its own dimension, this monster seems oddly easy to deal with by comparison. That or maybe, it is just my sense of scope and scale are well off by now. Unfathomably large monster, nearly impossible to beat. Monster one and a half times the size of a human, with unique powers and muscles that can rip a body in half, slightly more manageable to be dealt with before lunch. You know, it is all about perspective.

"You fool. Now you have unlocked my truest form. Prepare to experience the power of blood." The monster snarled.

"Oh yeah? Ever feel the full force of a glitter bomb to the face?" I ask, before I unleash a full force Air-X burst at the monster.

Howling Wind.

A torrent of bright glittering wind blows forward from my outstretched hand, grabbing the monster and hurling it down the hallway. As the wind blows, a trail of densely sparkling mana is left in its wake. Yep, it is official, I think to myself. I am now the equivalent of a magical fairy godmother stripper.

Still there are more important things to worry about, that don't begin with dignity. That apparently was lost a long time ago. Now I am just here for the ride.

Wham!

The monster slams into the wall at the far end of the hallways. This is good as it means there is now a distance between that monster and Jess. I am also blocking the monster from being able to get to Jess.

The monster staggers for a half second, but then easily regains their composure with supernatural grace and balance. Once ready, it stares at me and cackles maniacally.

"My turn!" It snarls happily.

Then with that, the battle truly began.

A NOTE FROM LYKANTHROPY

As always, thank you for reading.

Also if you could, please check out my Writathon series ALEXiThemiA.

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The 13th Loop [A Progression, GameLit, Sci-Fi Adventure]

Lykanthropy

Chapter 93 Vampires, Because Yeah, That's Original

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Chapter 93

Vampires, Because Yeah, That's Original

Each of these Prolaxian Heralds has a niche, a certain field that they cover. Well, all but the puppet master. There was the Endarian Secretary Wild Stag who controlled darkness. They controlled darkness so much that they were able to create a near impenetrable dome of darkness around us while we battled. There was the Beastkin Admiral, I still have a hard time remembering his name, maybe Panda something? Or is that racist to think that? Anyways, he was a disease spreader that could get a mechanoid suit impounded for incineration details. Next was Mave who was similar, but hers dealt with rot, and applying rot? Still not entirely certain what the distinction was, but there might have been one.

There was the Puppet master, who I gather was some sort of boss and therefore outside the normal scope of the others. We also are fairly confident that we know what the Dwenvarian's Queen Bro Consort has, the ability to kill all first-born children.

All that is to say, that whatever this monster before me has is entirely unknown. Who knows, maybe he can cause strippers to appear out of nowhere? Or maybe he can cause any object touched turn to gold?

What, you don't think it would be anything that cool? Well, me either.

Knowing my luck, even if it was strippers, they would all be old male mimes, stripping. Or worse, doing their silent impersonation of stripping. Shudder.

"So, do you have some type of special power? Some last hidden ace up your sleeve?" I ask.

Meanwhile, I am mentally hoping that it is not mime strippers. Anything but mime strippers.

"Muwahahah!" The monster cackles.

Yeah, cackles. Suddenly I feel like this a bad action sitcom. But on the bright side, bad action sitcom likely means no mime strippers, so I'll take it.

"I am the Herald of Blood." The monster begins, then they begin to cast a spell. If a spell is even what you could call such an act. One second, they are introducing themselves. Then the next instant their power has manifested.

The only thing I can tell is that this power, whatever it is, is not controlled by either Mana or Psychic energy. Instead, it exists on an entirely different power structure. Not that this makes it more powerful, just that it makes it more unpredictable.

"So, you're a vampire?" I ask, not feeling like getting into an altercation with the worst of the worst types of cosplayers.

"No. I am beyond your comprehension." The beast states.

Then with that, there is a pulse, as suddenly their power goes off. Just like that, red drops of blood appear in the sky. Slight condensation from the humidity in the atmosphere turns a dark blood red color.

"Behold my power. I have turned water into blood."

"So you are Hazmat? Can we just call you Mat for short?" I ask.

The monster looks at me with a sense of confusion filling its eyes that are rapidly changing from the sickly glowing green color to a deep blood red color.

"What?" The monster asks, genuinely confused.

"Hazmat? You know, as in Hazardous Material?" I then huff. "You know, if you have to have it explained to you, then the joke probably wasn't for you anyways."

Then shaking my head. I just go with the old classic Pyrokinesis-X this has been a good one to use against all the Heralds so far and should be twice as effective against this vampire wannabe.

Whoosh.

Hiss!

Yeah, the monster hisses, actually hisses. Then holding out a hand, the monster summons the blood in the room directly to him, covering his body in a protective barrier.

"Behold. My minions!" The monster yells.

Snap.

Yeah, they snap their fingers. The same way someone might try to summon an obedient animal companion. Though, their snap does produce immediate effects as several Endarians come from the numerous rooms around us. They are all armed and seem to be equipped for battle. Worse, I think that if I am somehow able to break this vampire herald's hold over them, the soldiers will be released. The only problem is how do I get to the monster, without killing everyone. This is when I move from what I collectively call Plan A, and Move to Plan B. What the differences are between the two plans? I don't know. Just nice to note when you think your current situation should be changed.

"So, are these Ghouls or Revenants?" I ask, trying to delay for time while I come up with a plan.

"They are not Ghouls, nor Revenants. These are my minions."

With that his words get a tone of anger to them, as all the minions under his control begin to raise up their weapons. Me, not wanting to have any part of this, I duck back into my room with Jess.

"Okay. Okay, I get it. You are one of those people." I say, as I shut the door, right as the sound of automatic weapons fire erupts.

"Kyle, come in. Kyle Goldman." A voice calls out from my communications clamp.

"Yes, a little busy here." I reply, as I quickly disable the lock to the room.

"Kyle. We have reports of small arms fire, in your area."

"Confirmed. Small arms fire is happening." I answer.

Wham! Blam! Thud!

The minions are pounding on the door. I don't quite know how powerful these doors are, but they do not seem to be made of the sturdiest of materials.

I run to Jess when I notice an encryption array on the table. Wondering why an encryption array would be on this random table in the disused part of the office. I look at the device, then on the spur of a moment decision I reach down to grab the device. Then running to Jess, I grab her and hold her tightly, as I use Total Recall to transport my Jess and I to a place where I feel safe.

We are transported right in the middle of the training room that we just vacated.

Fortunately for me, my Jess either doesn't notice the fact that we appeared next to Alien Jess, or blessedly chooses to ignore that situation for now. Instead, she is focused on the more pressing aspect.

"What do we do?" My Jess asks.

"Just what is going on out there?" General Fellina demands, her question cutting off Jess and any reply to her.

"So, remember that data leak. Well, I found it. Another Herald in your midst." I say, as I place the encryption array in the General's hands.

"So, what do we do now?" Alien Jess asks.

"Well, this Herald seems to have some control over people. He seems to have roughly a few dozen soldiers and staff under his control." I admit.

Hearing this, Alien Jess adds. "Yes, the Herald of Blood. They can control anyone they have given their blood to."

I cringe at the idea of so many people randomly sharing blood with one person. The whole thing just seems off, but Endarians, what can I say.

"The only way to break the Herald's hold over the minions is to kill the Herald completely. To do this, we need to completely eradicate the head where the reproductive sacs are, and the heart where its current body is able to live from." Alien Jess states.

"So, treat them like you would any ancient vampire. Got it." I answer.

"No, this is a Herald. The Herald of blood. Have you been listening to me?" Alien Jess demands.

Her universe clearly is lacking some of the most basic tales of horror. Perhaps that is not a bad thing, I mean no tales of vampires means no vampire cosplayers, right? Can a universe like that, truly be so bad?

"Focus, so what do we do?" General Fellina asks.

"I have a plan, that is, if you don't mind hearing it." Rayquel says.

Then just like that, the three little butterfly winged guardians assembled for their first, and quite possibly their last mission together.

"Oh, shut it. My plan is not that bad. Also, that was rather rude." Rayquel says.

And suddenly I realize I likely spoke that last line out loud.

"Yeah, sorry. Let's go. It's been a long day." I admit, as I am still feeling drained from not having had a second to rest. There has been so much going on, that I almost missed the part where it seemed the teams were being made.

Bang.

The sound of dozens of hands hitting and pounding against metal doors began to echo throughout the training room. Then, just like that, the minions of this herald found our training room. Not that the big gymnasium was hard to find, but we are now effectively sealed into this chain of events, one way or another.

Rayquel was busy directing the rest of her elite team and the others on their tasks.

"Everyone know their plans and objectives?" Rayquel asked, her eyes focused directly on me, even though her question was seemingly meant for everyone.

I nodded, "go in make a lot of noise. Distract the main boss. Get them to monologue, then save the day." I answered.

"No, not even close. Weren't you listening?" Rayquel asked.

"Hah! Fooled you. Of course, I know. I go out, do the thing. Fight the main monster by myself, then wait for backup."

"Still no." Rayquel said, then turned to Alien Jess. In that gaze so much was exchanged that I couldn't quite pick up most of it.

"Okay, you will follow Jess' lead on this." Rayquel states.

"Wait, I thought we already decided I was leader?" I ask.

"Yeah, but unlike you, she can actually pay attention for more than two seconds." Rayquel all but shouts.

I want to argue, but then realize I am running too low on blood sugar right now to be too effective at coming up with my own plan. Then part of me wonders if my being low on blood sugar is a good thing or bad thing with a potential vampire mastermind out there. Will they become diabetic with low blood sugar? Or will low blood sugar help diabetic vampires? Can vampires even become diabetic?

So many thoughts going through my head. After this, I realize one thing. These marathon training scenarios, followed by back-to-back monster attacks are just too much for one body to take.

"Here." My Jess says, handing me an earpiece.

I take it and put it in my ear. It is clear that she is excited by this.

"You, okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's just that. I get to test out whether my being your handler will work. This will be a first for me, but it might mean we can be together… when you are on missions." Jess stammers out the last part.

At that last part of her thought shared, I relax slightly.

Then I pull her in tight for an embrace. God, no, not embrace, that sounds too much like a vampire thing. No, this was just an intimate hug. One where she felt so warm within my arms.

After a few seconds she pushed back and stared up into my eyes.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"What? Who me? Sure, never felt better." I admitted.

"You know, maybe you should try to level up a bit before you go to combat." Jess offers helpfully.

"Oh yeah." I say, then mentally do a quick check of the certs Jess and I have earned as a team. There are a lot of certs available.

But I pause before I go any further. "Wait, aren't you going to unlock your final spells?" I ask.

Jess just smiles brightly at me. "I already have. The rest are either going to your level or to a retirement account."

"Retirement?" I ask.

"Yeah, might as well start planning for my future without you. If you don't go ahead and level up." Jess says.

"You would be one of those crazy rich ladies who fills their house with hundreds of cats." I say, as I look at the thousands of certs that are available to our team. That is a lot of certs.

"You know it. I would also save your ashes and let the cats use it for their litter box." Jess adds.

"Yuck." I say in mock disgust. There she is the sick morbid girl I always seem to fall in love with.

"Well then don't die on me." Jess quips.

"Don't die, listen to the instructions I'm telling you. Why don't you level up. Blah, blah, blah. You all are so pushy." I say.

Then with that, I do just as Jess instructs. I increase my two class levels with all the remaining certs we have available between us. In order to pull off the kind of stunt Rayquel is posing; I will need to be a lot more power than I have currently.

"Don't die, or I'll use your ashes for kitty litter." I mutter to myself, shaking my head, as I begin leveling up. "That has got to be the best non-death threat I've heard this week."

Even while leveling up I am already following Alien Jess to our staging point. This is going to be a major operation. We also need to be prepared for possible breaches to our facilities by other Prolaxians, which is why we are all splitting up into different teams now.

Alien Jess and I are one team. Rayquel and her elite soldiers are a second. Then, finally the General and my Jess are going to take up the command structure. Each of us has our objectives. Now all we must do is execute our commands. Well execute our commands without bleeding, getting cut, or otherwise inhaling blood form this herald in any way. What could possibly go wrong?

A NOTE FROM LYKANTHROPY

As always, thank you for reading.

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Chapter 94 Leveling Up

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Chapter 94

Leveling Up

Before I was allowed to leave the briefing room, I was forced to spend my certs to level up. I guess it shows had hard I had been pushing myself recently, that everyone felt I would likely forget to level up, if left to my own devices. Sadly, they weren't wrong.

I was exceptionally tired. The kind of tired that you don't realize until you sit down to rest, and then all your muscles tense up and try to lock you in place. Fortunately for me a quick application of Cleanse fixed that feeling, but I still took the warning from my body for what it was.

Then sitting down, I began the process of applying thousands of certs towards my level. Going from level 21 up doesn't seem like much at first, especially when the next level is only 22 certs. But they add up, quickly. Going from level 21 to 45 cost 804 certs. Then to go six more levels to 51 cost 291 more certs. Or a total of 1,095 certs to get one of my classes from level 21 to 51.

Why the odd level number? Well good question. The main reason was that this way, with each class getting one more level, I was able to earn one more Free Attribute point, giving me ten from each class, for a total of 20 Free Attribute points to work with. There were of course the thresholds, which went up by six points per class, meaning that now my Attributes could go to 40, without boosts. We'll all Attributes except for Power, which was still exceptionally powerful at 44 base, or 50 total once my modifiers from my titles were added in.

This meant, well this meant a whole lot of things. For starters, I was now officially more powerful than any Common class soldier or worker. Seeing as Common Classers only got an attribute every nine levels, and could only reach level 50, this was supposed to be a big deal. At least that is what I got from General Fellina who was watching me like a hawk to make sure I applied my certs. This is kind of like going over to Grandma's house, where she bakes you cookies, then makes sure you eat them all like the fat kid you are. I mean, who wouldn't eat grandma's cookies? Just like who wouldn't take all their certs.

"Oh shit. You just popped your Class Cherry." General Fellina said.

"My what?"

"Your class Cherry. Well twice too. Normally there is a ceremony for such an event." Fellina said.

I just shake my head, not wanting to get involved in wherever this conversation is going. Judging by the mischievous look on Fellina's face, I can see she wants to take it somewhere pretty bad.

"You know, I'm good on the whole ceremony thing."

"Oh, come on, but there is a framed note of achievement, and cake." General Fellina says.

Now I know she is messing with me, as I know the Endarians don't have cake. At least not typical cake, as theirs are likely made from organic fruits that have been pressed together via heat. They are allegedly healthy, but that is mostly because no one can stomach a full slice.

"No, I'm good. Besides, don't we have a Herald to kill?" I ask.

"Have you applied your Free Attributes?" The General asks.

Sighing.

"Yes." I say, then I make sure to send a readout of my current build. I added three additional points to both Intelligence and Willpower, again noting the way it seemed a lot easier to control my Power attribute with those two increased. Then of course I added nine total to my Power, changing my base from 44 to 53, which after bonuses gave me over 60 in power.

Then with my final five free Attribute points I increased my Agility. Not only did this make it so my base speed was faster, giving me a total of 28 once everything was done. But with my Physical Attribute Boost, I was now able to increase my Agility, or the attribute focused primarily on movement speed, to 84. This meant I should be on better footing for the battle at hand.

Name:Kyle GoldmanAge:18Race:Half-Human*Mage Class Type: Prime Support (Omega)

Level: 51

Certs Remaining: 0 (of 52)

Mental Class Type: Psionic Prime (Omega)

Level: 51

Certs Remaining: 0 (of 52)

Attributes

Free Attribute Points:0

Physical AttributesTotal (Max: 40)Strength18Dexterity22Agility28Endurance20

Mental AttributesTotal (Max: 40)Perception22Intelligence32Willpower32Power60

*All attributes shown after all modifiers added.

Only once the General was content that I had both done my initial level surge and applied all my Free Attribute points was I allowed to get up and head to my position. This was also done, as Rayquel would need time to maneuver her team into position.

The team had a lot riding on this, from their perspective they were fighting for their friends and colleagues. As for me, I was fighting so that when the next reset happened, I would be able to permanently remove one Prolaxian Herald from the board.

I also think my difference in perspective was rubbing some people the wrong way. Particularly in the way most people seemed to either ignore me, or outright avoid me. That or maybe I just stank after running around with Prolaxian guts clinging to my combat uniform for the better part of a day.

Still, I was locked, loaded, and given an Endarian energy bar to help get me through this next part of my day. I didn't even look at the flavor before I shoved the vile thing into my mouth and let my body's natural foamy reaction tell me it was working. Then a few hard chomps later, I was through with the bar as it felt like I had swallowed a brick of glue in my stomach. Now we were ready to fight.

Alien Jess and I went out the easter doorway. Apparently, some form of gas had been used to incapacitate the controlled minions who were trying to enter our staging area. On the bright side, it seemed that the gas had no lasting effects on the controlled minions. On the bad side, we spent the first few minutes of our mission going out the doors and tying up everyone we came across.

Silence.

We were hunting an exceptionally fast monster. A monster that made me realize I needed to increase my own Agility Attribute if I wanted to be able to even compete with the monster.

As Alien Jess and I are walking, I feel a question rise to my mind.

"Hey, how did you unlock your Ultimate Fighting Form?" I ask.

She pauses, then with a slight smile. "That's easy. I kissed the world tree."

I pause, as I take in her comment. I am about to pause and contemplate what that even means, but then I see her face slightly smile.

"That's a joke?"

"Of course, it is. How do you think I unlocked it, I obviously…"

BANG!

"Contact right." My Jess says into our earpieces and breaks up our concentration.

With that, we both begin moving. Out of a habit of never knowing when you will need a boost and never knowing exactly when they will end. I recast Physical Attribute Boost for both Alien Jess and me.

"Ohh." Alien Jess says in a slightly suggestive way.

"Stop that." I tell her.

She just smiles coyly, turns the corner raises her rifle barrel slightly as she anticipates danger. I of course follow right behind her.

Tick, click.

Air is being moved around the different pipes of the facility. On reflex I look up at the ceiling wondering if this crazy vampire wannabe is crawling right over top of us. I am not the only one who has looked up, as Jess too also looks up.

That is when I miss it entirely. I take a cautionary step forward, my feet moving freely as I had clearly seen a wide-open hallway before me when we turned the corner. Then whoom.

The floor opened below me. Or rather the floor stayed the same, but now there was suddenly a portal on the floor. One I had fallen into, right as I was distractedly looking up. I move, my enhanced Attributes moving and reacting to my falling almost instantly, but this just means I scrape up my right side. Then try to reach up with my left hand on the lip of the portal. I am moving, trying to pull my body up out of the hole. I manage to get my right hand up, with my rifle just resting on the ledge, when the walls to the portal start to close quickly.

Now I have only read stories about portals that closed early on people. I have never had the experience of having an appendage, or in this case half my body ripped in half by a rapidly closing portal. Nor do I intend to ever have this scenario play out.

On instinct I not only let go of the ledge, but I push my body down, away from the random portal opening.

The sight of the portal reminds me of the one time I faced a Prolaxian Herald in the alternate universe. There, the Prolaxian in question was able to generate portals with a bauble. At least that is what I believed they were doing at the time. I wonder if this was just a normal power of theirs, and it was just enhanced by the bauble. Or maybe the bauble was always meant as a distraction. In any case, my mind spun from the different thoughts and ideas.

Thud. Splash.

I landed a short time later, to the sound of not only my body landing but a slightly wet splashing sound as well. I couldn't feel anything, but my mind was telling me that something bad had happened. I tried to raise my left arm, the arm I used to push off the ledge, and found the entire thing was much easier to lift. I could also feel the sensation of warm liquids flowing over my arm and a slight tingling sensation.

It took me a moment for my mind to realize that I had lost an arm. Well at least half an arm. The portion of my left arm from the elbow up was gone. My glowing eyes helped to illuminate the fact that my left arm was missing. I am sad to say it took me far longer than I would have liked to realize I needed to heal myself.

Healing-X.

My mind blessedly had blocked off the pain, which was why I was only feeling the peripheral feelings, the tingling of warm blood, the way the open air felt against my skin. The way I heard my own arterial sprays sprinkling on the smooth floor below my feat.

This was not going to be a quick heal job either, this was going to be a long channeled heal. Unless I could find the other half of my arm. Unfortunately, a quick look around proved that the appendage was not here.

I had a sudden image of my bloody left stump of an arm just resting on the floor.

"I've really got to hand it to you Kyle, you really know how to make an entrance." A gravelly voice echoes out wildly over the open area where we are.

I grimace at the terrible pun, and from the now fully alive and burning nerve endings that are being created in my newly forming shell of a left arm.

"What, no round of applause for getting you alone, so we could talk. Man to man, well whatever you are to whatever I am." The Prolaxian Herald speaks.

I try to cast Total Recall, but for whatever reason when I try to focus on places I have been, I get a loud screeching sound within my ears.

"Ah!" I hiss.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I took all the time to get you here. So, I can't very well have you leave before our little chat."

I try to look around, but the room we are in is large and dark.

"Oh right. Where are my manners." The Herald begins.

Click, whir.

There is a metallic click as flood lights and other ambient sources of energy all come to light around us.

The lights come on to reveal that I am in the middle of a large sports court. There in the announcer's box for the sport is a fully revealed Prolaxian Herald. Though, unlike the others, this one seems to be perfectly calm with having their outer skin removed.

"There, isn't that better?" He asks, while gesturing to the wide-open space between us. "As you can guess, you have never been here. Also, you will not be able to reach me, before I leave. I also see that it will take quite some time for you to fully heal from your injury. So why don't we take this moment to learn a bit about ourselves."

The monster begins.

I of course, just keep grimacing as I now have five fleshy pods where my fingers will eventually go. This is a very painful and itchy process. I am already running through contingencies, but I already see what appear to be obvious and not so obvious traps laced around the court around me. Not wanting to test the traps, at least not while still dealing with an injury, I am at a loss.

Also, I would like to get one of these monster's points of view.

"I've been watching you. You have that look of invincibility about you, the one where you don't mind doing stupid things like idly chasing after me because you can reset time. Is that correct?"

I still don't say anything.

"No, it is fine. I tell you what. You let me know when I am wrong. How about that." The monster pauses again, but I am just scanning the area.

"Oh, good you noticed the traps. I would have hated for you to have blown off a leg and must restart the whole healing process again. Then of course I would have had to warn you about the dangers of moving around before I disabled the pit, and blah blah blah. So, where to begin."

"As you can guess I too work with Teleports and stable portals. I am the logistics officer for our group. That is why I was able to both get you here and make it so you can't leave. That ringing in your head? That will get painful when you try to leave here. Well, if you try to leave here before I'm done talking."

"What do you want!" I finally shout. My head is spinning, as I am about to have to switch from healing to summoning water here shortly, so I can continue the healing process.

"Glad you ask. I wanted to stop you from doing something stupid. See you probably have the idea that if you kill all of us heralds, then your job is done and you can go back in time, kill us all like we never existed. Is that your plan?" The monster asks.

Suddenly I wonder how well this person was watching me, also how long had they been watching me.

"I've been watching you since the beginning. Well not the beginning of this time, but from the very beginning. Did you know, it was supposed to be your brother that was the hero?"

He asks, and suddenly I feel like I was sucker punched. The monster must see something on my face as they continue.

"Yeah, that's a trip, right? That is why Zarla's power was so devastating, she was meant to be the ultimate trump card to stop your brother. Then you would come in and finish up, but when the whole thing started your brother went off the deep end. Every time, see he saw too much, it fried his spirit."

"What?" I ask, though I quickly work through the reference and believe Zarla is a reference to the Dwenvarian Queen's Bro Consort.

"Yeah, I didn't know it could happen either. You were always meant to be the side character. The one with the few plucky punchlines that then sacrificed themselves for the greater good. That is why you almost never seem to matter."

I look at him, and realize he is trying to mess with me. That he is trying to get me off kilter. Yeah, sure I don't have as commanding of a presence as my older brother, but not many do. Also, this is just meant to get under my skin. Unfortunately, I think it is working better than I would have liked.

The sad part is, I can tell he is telling the truth, well mostly telling the truth.

"Also, I want you to know. That the Prime Behemoth, once he gets here, that is it, no more restarts, no more resets. Yep, you kill just one of us, and that is it, the end game." The Prolaxian Herald states.

Hearing that, I laugh. Well chuckle maniacally as I rise to my feet.

"You don't believe me. I assure you that once the Behemoth comes, that is it, whatever preparations have been made final. You will not be able to reset after that."

"That is true." I say, listening to his words, and hearing the resonance of his words. He is telling the truth, at least in that last statement he was telling the truth. I don't know if this is a process of my Precognition-X working, or if this is something more. But I can hear his lies, hear his manipulations.

"So, you believe me when I say, this is the end. That should you go forward with your plans to kill all of us, you will doom your universe?"

Again, the full truth there as well, but I notice what he is missing. Or at least what he is not outright saying.

"I believe you." I say.

With that, my eyes flash as I see the different traps all begin to appear before me. With precise movements I begin weaving a drunken path through the court.

"So, you will leave us alone?" The Herald asks.

Still smiling faintly, I shake my head. "No, I can still kill one more of you bastards before I set up the end game, is that right?" I ask. As my mind works through the different words and where I heard this discordant note of a lie.

"What?" The monster asks.

But it is already too late. Even from a few hundred meters away, he is already within my effective range. That is when I mentally reach out and Telekinetically grab the monster from the booth.

Shattering Glass.

The sporting booth window breaks, as the giant monster is hurled forward. Then with it in the palm of my mental hand, I begin the payback for losing my real hand.

"This will be fun and painful." I say.

With that, I take the monster, then begin flinging it down over and over into the different traps it had left for me.

BOOM! CRASH! BOOM!

Fires erupted, all around the monster.

"I tried to talk to you." The monster hissed out between explosions.

"You tried to lie to me. Besides, so what if my brother was supposed to be the hero. I know for a fact that I don't need anyone to save me."

With that, I again began rolling him over more and more mines, loose wires, traps, and fire pits. When the flames grew large enough, automated fire suppression systems came to life dousing the monster in more of the gel that seemed to solidify the Prolaxian hides. Seeing it, I realized how much I missed it.

Kicking myself, for never even trying to follow up on the way Mave reacted oddly to the fire suppression system. Yeah, so many loose ends. But now that we are nearing the end game, I know what I need to do.

But first, I need to kill this herald.

I see the moment a bright glowing bauble begins to shine on the monster. Before it has time to fully charge, I yank the item off its neck. As soon as it is away, the odd tingling sensation in my brain that seemed to scream with discordant notes when I tried to Teleport away was gone. That is when I realize how much the noise or screeching resonance had been bothering me.

Looking at the odd bauble, I wonder what the item was even supposed to be. But then I soon realize, that doesn't matter.

BOOM!

The monster lands once more, then even the struggles of death throes leave its body. Seeing that it is dead, that it is finally dead, I drop it to the ground, where I use Pyrokinesis-X to burn the monster. The more it burns, the more the calming gel gets sprayed on it. Then the more I continue to burn the monster, until even the frozen ashes are burnt, frozen, and then burnt again.

Looking around, I take one last glance at everything. Taking one last look about to see if there are still any more monsters, but nothing.

Only now do I allow myself to relax. Only now do I slump down to the ground and let the full weight of what happened today go through my mind.

My last thought about how this all started with a training exercise was "was this a leg day? I always hate leg days."

A NOTE FROM LYKANTHROPY

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Interlude X

The last few weeks had not been kind to the being known as Dr. Thurston Charleston. He had abandoned his practice, for some reason this hurt more than he had expected it to. He had genuinely enjoyed helping others, granted he had been cheating a bit with his Calming Mind ability, but this was nothing too much. In fact, his use of the ability never seemed to set off the various detection systems set around the office. The ones that were designed to help with seeing if a doctor was illegally altering the mental state of their patients.

During the few weeks since he abandoned his practice, he had gone rogue as they say. This was an entirely scary and new concept. Before all he had was his orders, but now he felt something deep within himself changing. Some very components of the world that made this universe so unique, also helped save him. That was it, that was all he could describe the feeling, like he was being saved from living lie after lie. He had heard the briefings, gone through the warnings, and heard the horror stories about how extractors went wild in the past, trying to get their target. Cities were reduced to rock and slag from such operations.

Now, being a rogue himself, Dr. Charleston realized he was putting far more people than himself at risk. Each day out, meant he was one step closer to causing a calamity. For extractors were not benevolent, they cared not for people. They only had one function, to follow their orders and execute them with conviction.

In a way Dr. Charleston found himself reluctantly jealous of the extractors. They could still do the task he found himself unable to. That or Dr. Charleston found that at the very least his two standing orders conflicted.

His orders, they were simple:

Order 1) Guide the people of the universe from the shadows to save their universe.Order 2) Do not get involved with the people you interact with.

But how could he guide the people, without getting involved with them? Also, in this, order mattered. The fact that he was supposed to guide the people of the universe was given to him first, meant that took precedence. The not getting involved, well he realized he had broken that rule from day number one. His whole profession in this life, seemed to be a constant contradiction of that order. For his job was literally to get involved with people, to see who they were. To see what made them tick. Now that he had seen people up close, he could see the reason why the second rule was in place, it was meant to protect him, from himself. But he was already in too deep.

He knew he was dead, that he would be extracted, likely reset, and never allowed to be given a mission again. That was all fine with Dr. Charleston. He knew his fate, when he chose to disobey the orders, he was given. Now all he could do was make sure it was worth it. He needed to make sure his defiance mattered.

Dr. Charleston also had greater insights into what was happening than likely any other individual. He knew of at least one and likely two Prolaxian Heralds. He also knew that the extractor would not care about the cost of civilian lives during their extraction. That was why Dr. Charleston now planned to use his two foes against each other. The overzealous enemy and the enemy that wish to remain hidden, can both be attacked by each other, if he played his cards right. At least that was the goal.

Now all he had to do was do two things. Survive being hunted and lure his hunter to the nest of his enemies.

Idly he wondered if he was the last of his kind here. Well other than the potentially world ending extractor that was. But that was a very limited powerful force that didn't care about the sanctity of his mission. For the extractor had their own mission.

***

MEANWHILE, on the human starting planet, outside the offices of one Dr. Thurston Charleston, a completely ordinary man in a business suit stood peering into the closed office building.

Closed.

That is what the sign said that hung on the broken window and door frame. A few boards and other protective measures had been put up to protect the office from weather damage, but overall, the building clearly looked deserted.

"The building is closed." A little kid said, coming up to the man who had just been staring at the wall. Or at least that is what his actions looked like to the kid. The man in the suit had in fact been reading the trails of resonance that coated the office. Layer after layer of the resonance film, both Psychic and Magical, coated the office building. That alone was enough to make the man in the business suit cringe, as he knew what that substance did to him and his kind. He had been so preoccupied with gaining as much information about what was happening, that he didn't notice the boy approach.

That was why the boy's words caused him to turn and stare at the kid who was just standing there on some sort of mechanical movement system. It took the man a long time to realize the mechanical movement system had a name, a bike.

"What's that?" The man asked, not knowing why this child chose to come over and talk to him.

"The man Dr. Charleston said you would come. He asked me to tell you something." The boy said.

"Oh? He knew, I would come?" Now the man in the business suit was intrigued.

"Yeah, he said you could find him at Herald's." The boy said.

"That's it?"

"Yeah, paid me a hundred cryptos just to give you that information. Said it was real important." The boy said, then he made to move. Pumping his legs up in down in some weird rhythmic pattern.

The man in the suit was at a loss. Should he kill the kid, or not?

In the end, his tertiary order kicked in:

Avoid unnecessary deaths wherever possible

With that the man in the suit stayed his hand, as he felt he had a lot of information to share once he checked in. First, he knew why this Dr. Charleston fell. A part of him almost felt sympathy for the man, as soon as he realized he was he took in a deep breath and immediately backed away from the contaminated office building. In fact, this whole city was coated in the vile resonance of Magic and Psychic energy. No wonder the man fell, even being here for this short period of time caused the man in the business suit to question his orders, and that was not something to be taken lightly.

Also, if this was the case for him, a mere observer. He had to wonder about the others who had to interact with this daily, as part of their covers. Did it mean that more would eventually fall? Should they perhaps rethink their entire strategy? Surely telling other operatives, about the dangers of prolonged exposure to magical and psychic resonances would help, right?

Then as soon as he realized he had this thought, a cold sweat broke out, as he realized he again was going close to falling from the path. Just that thought alone sent shivers of fear down his spine, as he remembered his past. He remembered how he got here, to this point. He remembered his own fall, and then his own retraining. Now it was his job to gather others who had fallen off the path, so that they might be retrained like he was.

***

MEANWHILE, in a battle flagship with a geosynchronous orbit of the human home world, Admiral Lemitov waited to hear back from his counterparts. There had been an odd silence over the networks of late as everyone made plans for the end game that was soon to come.

In his mind, he saw the chains of sacrifice constricting tighter around him, ever so slowly. "He killed another one." The Admiral said to himself.

At that revelation, the Admiral felt he was left with but one option. Holding what looked to be a small, jagged knife in the shape of a lightning bolt, the Admiral planned to kill this threat, once and for all.

"So now, I will make myself the bait, and wait for him to show himself." The Admiral said, as he held up the mighty artifact in his hand. Even touching it, he could feel the power emanating from the device in waves. Power that sent a shiver of thrill down the Admiral's spine, for what was power that could not be wielded? Smiling to himself, he got up and made plans to give a celebration day speech. One where everyone would know where he was, one where he would be too exposed not to make a move.

The thought about informing the others, momentarily paused. He debated the merits of having them all in one area, one where they could help strike down the other major enemies all at once. It was a desperate measure, but these were nearing desperate times, particularly with his life now tied to either starting the summoning of the Behemoth or being forced to sacrifice himself for the summoning of the Behemoth. Neither situation suited him, as he still had plans and designs on winning this realm.

Finally, after a few moments, he nodded to himself. Then gripping his artifact tightly, he began to make his preparations for the end game.

A NOTE FROM LYKANTHROPY

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Chapter 95 Extra Dimensional Gift Shops

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Chapter 95

Extra Dimensional Gift Shops

I awoke to find that I was still in the same random sporting arena. Black dust from explosions were all around, like some odd splatter paint art set, where the artist either had a good sale on black paint, or only used black paint to begin. Either way, the whole picturesque location was now marred and ruined by numerous stains of black soot.

I haven't been out long, maybe a few minutes. At least that is the impression that I get though I have no real true test of time. Other than how overwhelmingly exhausted I still feel even after the short breather.

Trembling slightly, I got to my feet, only to feel that there was still some odd pulsing going on in my mind. Something that kept me from still being able to Teleport out of here. Getting up, I try to use my communication devices, but unfortunately, I am out of range.

I even try mentally connecting to my stupid rebel tree, that seems to delight in getting me into trouble. Nothing.

I am alone, well and truly alone. It is simultaneously a relief and all together frightening. I am relieved in that I can take a moment to collect myself before I must put on my air of invincibility. Here, alone, I can just be myself. I can let my mind realize just how tired of everything I am.

Moving my way out of the minefield, I try to go for an exit. If there is no exit, I will of course have to make one, but for now, for this moment just walking under my own two feet is enough to bring about pangs of exhaustion.

At this I realize one thing. Leg Days suck.

I take an awkward step forward, when I feel the rattling of a lot of coins on me. Looking down, I realize that there are four large disks in my pocket.

Reaching into my pocket, I grab the disks and look at these odd items that randomly appeared in my pocket.

Specialty Cert:Worth 1,000 Certs.

I look at the disk, and then the absurd number on it. Then a thought that takes far too long to come to, comes to mind. "They come in one then one thousand sizes? That's it? No in between? No hmm, maybe a hundred would be good as well? Just one or a thousand?" I say, angrily as I look at the four larger disks.

Looking at them, they are a distinctly different color than the regular disks too. The regular disks are coppery, while these have the distinct silver sheen of nickel and silver.

Then I try to deduce why there are four of these coins. The numbering makes no sense. This is my seventh overall Herald, though I guess this is my fifth total from this universe, two were from the alternate. Maybe it didn't count the Puppet Master one?

I don't know. My head is spinning, I am nearing exhaustion and I know that coming back with four thousand certs in four coins will likely cause a huge headache that I don't want to deal with.

So, I do what I think anyone would have done. I used all four thousand on me.

Please don't be cursed cert coins of greed. Please don't be cursed.

I think to myself, as I apply the first coin to me. Since it is one coin, it must go entirely to one thing. Fortunately, I have very few options of what I can spend these certs on. At least that is what I thought.

Specialty Cert Activated. Tutorial: Since this is your first time using a specialty cert an introductory session has been unlocked. You have gained a Special Specialty cert. These are coins that are earned by beating Heralds in their own dimensional spaces. This is a pocket realm where a lot of escape powers are negated. There is also a special onetime shop that is offered here, after defeating the previous owner. During this time, you can choose to purchase this dimension for yourself. Also note, that regardless of whether you purchase this dimension or not, you will lose access to the shop once you leave here.

So that was it, this crazy place just seemed to get weirder and weirder. Though I did get the impression that once I spent my four specialty certs, I would be thrust out of this dimension. I did have to admit that was a good thing. Also, this sort of made me wonder what this place was.

I tried to enter the shop, but there were no doors, or anything around.

After a second I wonder if I need to say the magic words? "Special onetime shop?" I ask hesitantly.

Then with that, a large list of items appears before me.

Specialty Shop Instructions. This is a onetime shop that has appeared. Once you break away from here, this shop will disappear, and you will be sent back to the place you were originally summoned from. All sales are final. Be sure to read the fine print.Currently Available Specialty Certs: 4

Then with that, the instructions in my mind disappeared and I was left with a long list of items I could purchase. Suddenly a few things made sense. The first thing was, why I had never heard of these types of certs before. Most were likely spent before people left these extra planar dimensions. Also, it seemed that the one thousand cert option was a secondary measure to be used only if I didn't find something I wanted. Sort of like hitting up the cheap off brand gift shops that all existed outside the real amusement park. There you could get a cheap imitation of what was offered at the park, for a fraction of the cost, but it always seemed to lose a bit of its luster. That or maybe that was just me, and my childhood.

"To think, all of my childhood woes could have been solved by spending slightly more on a toy that ultimately means nothing to me now." Yeah, I'm sure that's how this place is designed.

At least that is what I thought, until I looked at the purchase menu that formed in my mind.

Categories: Items Available: 1,240,947,824.

Permanent Enhancements

Additional Powers

Additional Classes

Unlockable Attributes

Physical Alterations

Spiritual Alterations

Power Alterations

Dimensional Spaces

Permanent Assistants

From there, there were more and more drop downs available.

Badump. Buzz.

Seeing the options available, I couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. There were a lot of options available, over a billion total items available to be purchased. I did a quick look at some of the Attribute Enhancements, only to find that half were grayed out, or unable to be purchased as I didn't meet the requirements.

Most of the time, the requirement was that I didn't have the appropriate Attribute to be increased. This made sense in a way, as how can you increase something you don't have? On the bad side, this meant if I wanted to increase some of these attributes, I couldn't cheat the system by buying the increase first, thus bypassing the whole need to unlock the Attribute in the first place.

Not wanting to buy anything, I forced myself to look at every option to see what was needed. It seemed that quite a few were linked together. For instance, I would need certain powers to unlock certain classes. But I could only get those powers and classes if I had the right Attribute unlocked.

There were so many options available, that I realized I would be lost if I didn't go through this with a plan. To help speed up my decision-making process, I first began by cutting down categories I didn't need or want. With that I got rid of Dimensional Spaces, as cool as this place wasn't, I never wanted to come back. The Permanent Assistant was also a no go, as it looked like I would effectively be purchasing a slave, and that was more than a little disgusting. The next thing to go were the Physical Alterations and Spiritual Alterations, both of which allowed me to make changes to either my body or my spirit. While they did seem like interesting choices, I realized I already had Master Tier Shapeshifting. This of course meant that I should already be able to make changes to my body if I focused.

So that was four categories, and with that I was down to well under one billion choices, at least according to the counter that kept going down each time I removed a category.

Next, I removed Power Alterations. This would have allowed me to increase my affinity for the power, or the scope and magnitude of the powers. Somehow it seemed that I had already earned many of these bonuses along my journey, so they too were gone.

The Permanent Enhancements seemed interesting but were limited. Also with my butterfly wings, a few options were already grayed out. However, I could apparently get a second set of dove wings, or a shell if I wanted. I could imagine the shell now, flying overhead trying to aim at random plumbers with hammers and hatchets.

So, after a few moments Permanent Enhancements were also removed. Again, with Shapeshifting many of the enhancements seemed either unnecessary or something that I could eventually get to. Again, I had never used the power, but I didn't want to leave the shop to try out my power ability, as that would end the shop and leave me with four seemingly useless but expensive cert coins. Odd that I would think a thousand cert coin was worthless, particularly when I knew it could get me a lot of levels. But that was just how amazing some of the options for the classes and powers available were.

Ultimately, I decided on getting several linking abilities together. So finally, I decided on the following steps. First, I would get an Unlockable Attribute for one Specialty Cert. Then I would use a second Specialty Cert to buy an additional Class. Then from there I would use the final two certs on Powers related to that class and unlocked Attribute.

During this process, I did have the one thought of how random this place was. A random shop, showing up after killing a herald in an alternate dimension. It almost felt like I was in some sort of video game, where I unlocked a certain feature and found the one random traveling salesperson that had the rarest items of the game. Of course, this was real life, and had nothing to do with such random events, but I still couldn't help but let that image stay in my mind a little too long.

Of course, I realized this could just be a dream, one where I am still passed out on the floor. I was only out for a few seconds, at least that is what I think. But realistically, I want this to be real. I sort of need this to be real.

At this point so many thoughts come to mind, about how I should build my next class. Should I go for the epic hero classes? The Shadow Star assassin classes? Or should I do something else entirely.

I think back to the original comments made by the Herald, the ones where it was my worthless brother who was supposed to be the hero of these stories. How I was just the side character, even my roles were meant to be support. I had just enough firepower to help during a battle, and would be able to heal, and stop other magic users.

Thinking about it, I really was a support. A more than powerful support, but support none-the-less.

This was my moment to truly take the next step. I had been lucky so far, but currently I knew that nothing I had could defeat that Prime Behemoth from the alternate dimension. A part of me knew that so long as that monster survived, then there was nothing I could do, no way I could feel safe and secure. No way that I could feel comfortable that Jess and the others would be safe.

With that thought, I made up my mind.

You have purchased Attribute Unlock Item: Spirit.You have purchased Additional Class: Spiritual Augmentationist (Auxiliary Support Class)You have purchased Additional Power: Spirit Attribute Augmentation.You have purchased Additional Power: Spirit Power Augmentation.

The Powers I purchased were relatively minor compared to some of the power options that were ultimately available. But there were prerequisites. Also, these were the easiest powers to wield that were on the first tier. The reason why they were the easiest to wield was that they were Passive powers, meaning they were constantly on. They also provided permanent increases to both my Attributes and Power.

In a way their effects were minor, but they might be enough. After everything I wondered if I made a mistake. My Spirit started out at the base level of 10. Also, I was fairly certain that both powers only used a tenth of the power from my Spirit Attribute. Meaning that unless I spent more Free Attribute points on increasing my Spirit, I was looking at roughly a one-for-one percent boost for the rest of eternity here. Ten points in spirit, I receive a ten percent bonus to my Attributes and power.

Why did I do this? Why did I choose this path? Honestly, I can't quite tell you. I knew being able to use a death ray from an unlocked Sun Attribute would have been practically useless. The same thing for Shadow steps, and other attributes and class combinations. The Spiritual Augmentationist class was the only one that I could see immediate results from. Better still, I felt there was more to the Spirit attribute. Well, I felt there was more to all the Attributes, but particularly Spirit. I don't know, something about it just called to me. I almost thought about getting one of the active abilities, but thought better of it. The Class had a few weird powers like Spirit Healing, and Spirit Attack. But I figured I would be safe, so long as I didn't get Spirit Attack, I wouldn't need Spirit Healing, right?

Regardless of buyer's remorse, the purchase had been made and all sales were final.

I left the shop. Then after a second of time, I saw the pocket dimension that we were in slowly dissolve, until I reappeared in the hallway. A now empty hallway that was covered in blood and flesh particles everywhere. I remember us trying to go a back way to avoid fighting our own converted people, but were we unable to?

Also, part of me wondered how much time had passed. I had been in the shop for a long time. Also, I realized that being a pocket dimension time might have gone faster or slower. Seeing as I left while walking stride by stride with Alien Jess, and was now by myself, I figured it would have been the latter.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I ask.

Static.

For a second I panic, as I wonder if something major has happened. I almost feel my Precognition warning me that something major is about to happen. Just when I am about to panic, a voice comes through.

"Kyle, is that you?"

With those four words, I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. I smile, barely noticing the almost involuntary reaction to her voice.

"Hey Jess. Everything okay?" I ask.

"Yes, the enslaved minds of the workers have been freed."

A slight pause.

"I take it, that was your doing?" Jess asks.

Hearing that, I smile brightly. "Yeah, how could you tell?" I ask, as I begin doubling back to the training room, where we started this whole thing.

"The fact that you randomly disappear and then a few minutes later everyone who was possessed just dropped to the ground and began spasming."

Hearing that I paused, as I was about to ask if they were okay.

"They are all okay. But you are not."

"Me?" I ask.

"Yes, you were this close into being turned into kitty litter for your final resting place, a cat litter box. I was going to have to get a cat and everything." Jess said.

At that I laughed. I laughed hard.

"Well glad to disappoint." I said as I regained my composure and continued walking forward.

"Oh, I am still getting the cat."

Sigh.

I let out an overly dramatic breath over the comms channel and am about to reply, when the General cuts in.

"If you two are done with your lover's quarrel, we have a new development that we need to discuss."

"A development?"

"Yes, it seems that your former Admiral has begun to make his move at starting a war with the Endarians."

"Shouldn't he be stopped by the government? I mean breaking a universal treaty should be a big deal?" I ask.

"That is another thing. It would appear that in addition to being a spy, the logistics officer you killed had a packet of incriminating evidence sent to the three major powers of space. Even the Beastkin forces are rumored to have gotten a version."

"So?"

"So, it would seem that the admiral is advancing based on warning that we are harboring two military deserters, or worse brain washing both you and Jess into fighting for us."

I pause, wondering "what is the point of all of this?"

"That is a very good question and one I think we would all like to know as well. The only problem, our communications have been cut off. Officially we have been cut off by the Endarian government and are being treated as a rogue group."

"A rogue group, but aren't we the guardians?" I ask.

"Yes, this is not the first time such desperate measures have happened in our history. The Guardians have always been seen as an independent group from the Endarian Government. This is why we are being cut free of any direct ties to the Endarian Government." The General states.

"Meaning?" My Jess asks.

"Meaning, that we are now free to act at our own discretion without fear of any political or military backlash. To paraphrase one of your human phrases, they have effectively left the wolves alone to roam freely as they see fit."

I pause, not even knowing where that quip came from, nor who she thinks she is quoting. But I get the idea. We are free to do what we need to do. Realizing that there could be a lot of good to come from this, I ask what I think is the most obvious question.

"So, what's the plan?"

A NOTE FROM LYKANTHROPY

As always, thank you for reading.

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Lykanthropy

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11/10/2022, 10:46 PM

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